Unbalanced sound in a highly reverberant space motivated Golden Gate Cathedral – the main worship space of the Memphis, Tennessee, church with a membership upwards of 2,000 – to seek specialist advice. The church turned to integration specialist MC2Solutions, whose experience in designing and installing high-quality systems in similar venues has become well known.

The church’s main sanctuary has a seating capacity of 1,350. The church’s pastor, Bishop Edward H Stephens, is a passionate and expressive preacher, so a sound system with a natural balanced sound and outstanding intelligibility is an essential element in delivering his sermons.

‘Used for a wide range of services and productions, the sound system is required to provide very high quality speech and full-range music, with the crucial focus being on frequency balance and intelligibility,’ Carl Woodard II, owner and designer of MC2Solutions, explains. ‘To avoid reflections, we designed the system using wide dispersion line arrays to ensure even coverage of the congregation.

‘Community provides the ideal solution for this application in the form of its new IV6 modular vertical array system. IV6 is a passive system that delivers a cost-effective combination of acoustic purity and long-term reliability. Its multiple configuration and splay options gave me the tools to design a system with excellent SPL and frequency response consistency and seamless coverage.’

The system comprises LR arrays each comprising six IV6-1122 wide-dispersion 12-inch two-way array elements, with a pair of IV6-118S 18-inch subwoofers extending the low frequency response. A further combination of Community I Series IP6-1122 12-inch two-way point-source, IC6-2082 dual 8-inch compact loudspeakers, and IS6-218 dual 18-inch subwoofers provide additional fill and rear stage seating coverage.

Served by an Allen & Heath dLive digital mixer, the system uses Lab.gruppen amplification and Lake processing. AKG and Sennheiser wired microphones and Shure wireless were chosen to ensure vocal quality with the flexibility required by the church.

‘The consistency and intelligibility of the new IV6 system is a dramatic improvement for the congregation,’ Woodard concludes. ‘Members can now focus on the content of sermons and productions and the church is very satisfied with the sound quality we have achieved.’

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